ruling elites and decision-making in fascist-era dictatorships

Ruling Elitessearch took place in the Central State Archive (Arquivio Centraledello Stato) in Rome, the Institute of Contemporary History (Institutsfür Zeitgeschichte) in Munich, the National Library (BibliotecaNacional) and National Archive (Arquivo Nacional–Torre do Tombo)in Lisbon and the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) in Madrid.Some preliminary findings have been presented at seminars andat a conference at the University of Lisbon’s Social Sciences Instituteduring October 2008, with some of the papers being published in thePortuguese Journal of Social Science 8 (1) (2009).The debt of gratitude the editor owes in the preparation of collectedworks is always great, but I would particularly like to mentionthe patience and vitality of Juan J. Linz, who is both a friend and amaster and who had collaborated in a previous project (Pedro Tavaresde Almeida, António Costa Pinto, Nancy Bermeo, eds., Who governsSouthern Europe?, London, Frank Cass, 2003) and who, while unableto attend the conference, was willing to discuss and comment on severalof the chapters.Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the project’s researchassistant, Claudia Almeida, for her assistance in the preparation of thechapters and index, to Joaquim António Silva for his patient elaborationof the figures and tables and for the cover design, to StewartLloyd-Jones for translating and correcting the text and, last but notleast, to Professor Stephen Fischer-Galati, editor of the Social ScienceMonographs.António Costa PintoLisbon, July 2009